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Packers greatly improved run defenses faces massive playoff test vs Saquon Barkley and Eagles

Paul Bretl | 1/8/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — One of the crucial matchups in Sunday’s Wildcard matchup between the Packers and Eagles will be how well Green Bay’s much-improved run defense can contain Philadelphia running back Saquon Barkley.

In his first season with the Eagles, Barkley put up monster numbers. Without playing in the team’s season finale a week ago, Barkley still eclipsed the 2,000-yard rushing mark, averaging a hefty 5.8 yards per rush over the course of the season with 13 touchdowns.

Compared to the rest of the NFL, Barkley would lead the league in rushing. His 5.8 yards per attempt were just behind Derrick Henry, and his 13 rushing touchdowns were the seventh-most. In terms of his big play ability, no back had more rushes of 10-plus yards in 2024, and contributing to that success was Barkley ranking as one of the best at forcing missed tackles.

“The season he has had, he’s dynamic and he hurt us when we played them the first game of the season in terms of not only running the ball but he caught a rail route out of the backfield,” said Matt LaFleur of Barkley. “So, he’s a guy that you absolutely have to have eyes on, have vision on, and making sure that you have a plan for him.”

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Adding to the difficulty that comes with containing Barkley in the ground game is that also a part of that equation is quarterback Jalen Hurts. No quarterback in football carried the ball more than Hurts, who rushed for 630 yards at 4.2 yards per attempt and had 14 rushing touchdowns of his own.

The one-two punch of Barkley and Hurts in the backfield together can be a real stressor on opposing defenses. The Eagles’ heavy usage of the RPO game can stretch a defense horizontally, creating more space for the Eagles’ offense to attack, not to mention that attempting to decipher who has the ball can cause a split second of hesitation, which is all it takes for a running lane to open up.

“They do such a great job because there’s other weapons out there, too, and you’ve got to contain the quarterback and they’ve got one of the top offensive lines in the National Football League,” LaFleur said.

Under first-year defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, the Packers run defense has had a major turnaround. This unit finished the regular season, allowing just 4.0 yards per rush on the year–the third-lowest mark in football. Green Bay also surrendered fewer than 100 rushing yards per game, which ranked seventh this season, and this included doing so against some of the game’s most dynamic rushing attacks.

“(It’s) Allowing us not to play blocks and just to use our God-given athletic ability to get off of blocks and get separation to make those plays,” Karl Brooks said of the run defense. “I would just say it’s credit to the scheme and how we were taught.”

Success for any run defense starts with the interior defensive line and that unit’s ability to generate a steady push, take up space, and occupy blockers, which not only cuts off or closes up running lanes, but that frees up other defenders to make plays. The defensive ends also play a crucial role in setting the edge so ball carriers aren’t able to bounce outside.

“I would say our approach frontside of plays,” said defensive line coach Jason Rebrovich on one of the keys to the run defense’s success. “I think we’re getting some knockback at the point of attack, which is now making running backs have to bow out even further or closer to the surest tackler in the world, which we’ve said before is the sideline. Or if it cuts back, we’ve had pretty decent pursuit on the backside, whether it’s our backside ends, could be an interior player, backside three-technique, nose, whatever it is, or our linebackers behind. And they’ve done an outstanding job.”

However, while success may begin there in the trenches, for a defense to consistently operate at a high level against the run as the Packers have, it truly takes all 11 defenders.

Along with the interior defensive line, the defensive ends need to set strong edges to prevent ball carriers from getting outside. The linebackers need to fill gaps, shed blocks, and get sideline-to-sideline to prevent ball carriers from getting upfield. And for the defensive backs, it’s up to them to swarm to the running back to get as many defenders near the ball to help limit yards after contact or the damage from any missed tackles forced.

“Stopping the run is not just the D line,” added Rebrovich. “Our nickels have done an unbelievable job and those guys setting edges on the perimeter and bringing that thing back so it can’t gain a yard. The more and more we can push the ball lateral to where our guys are going to, the Calvary sets in, the less yards they’re going to get. Our corners have done a great job. It’s a team effort, as you guys know.

“Stopping the run is all 11. I can’t say enough. Our linebackers…when he (Edgerrin Cooper) gets a shot to go down there and pursue a play. So, it takes all 11 of us, but I would say the front side on knocking things back of these perimeter plays has probably been something we’ve gotten better at as the season’s going on.”

When the Packers faced the Eagles in Week 1 to open the 2024 regular season, Barkley rushed for 109 yards while averaging 4.5 yards per carry. However, 34 of those yards came on one rush in the second half. On Barkley’s other 23 carries, he did average just 3.2 yards per attempt.

Against Hurts, meanwhile, the Packers’ defensive front took a more controlled pass rush approach, where the focus was on keeping the quarterback in the pocket. There’s a give-and-take with that decision. On one hand, from the run game perspective, it did work, with Green Bay giving up only 33 rushing yards to Hurst on 13 carries. But on the flip side, the pass rush and the ability to generate pressure did suffer.

With this Eagles’ offense, it’s certainly not as if the run game is all that has to be worried about. This is a very potent passing game that features AJ Brown and Devonta Smith at wide receiver. Hurts’ average of 8.0 yards per pass attempt was the fourth-highest mark this season.

However, any sort of potential success in limiting this high-powered Eagles’ offense is going to have to start with Green Bay’s run defense and finding some way to contain Barkley and Hurts. If they can, there are times when it will put the Philadelphia offense behind the sticks and in predictable passing situations, where defenses often have the upper hand–both in coverage and from a pass rush perspective.

Yet, on the flip side, if the Packers can’t slow that dynamic duo, the offense will routinely be in short down-and-distance situations, where the entire playbook is open to the Eagles. At that point, Philadelphia can either run the ball again or pass, which spreads the defense out and can keep them on their heels with some unpredictability from the offense at play. And when that element is coupled with all the playmakers on that side of the ball, well, good luck.

“We’ll definitely have our work cut out for us,” LaFleur added, “but I think our guys are eager for the opportunity to be into the dance. And that’s kind of what I told them: We’ve got to maximize the moment and we’ve got to make sure that our prep’s on point, that our process is on point, so we can go out there and give our best effort.”

Back to the basics: Packers look to refocus as playoff matchup vs Eagles awaits

Paul Bretl | 1/7/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — It has been a couple weeks of “sloppy” football from the Packers, something that must get cleaned up with a matchup against a high-powered Philadelphia Eagles team on the horizon.

“I would say that we have gotta be more detailed,” said Matt LaFleur on Monday. “Just, it’s been a little sloppy and that’s in every phase.”

The passing game for the Packers, and therefore the entire offense, has sputtered the last two weeks. Through three quarters against Minnesota, the Vikings man-coverage heavy approach had the Packers’ passing game flummoxed, as Jordan Love threw for fewer than 100 yards through three quarters as the offense got off to another dreaded slow start, which ultimately did them in.

Then, in the limited sample size we saw on Sunday against Chicago before Love exited the game, moving the ball through the air was, again, no easy task for Green Bay. Nothing in that regard seems to come easy right now. Facing a Bears team with their eyes on the offseason and losers of 10 straight, the Packers trailed 14-3 at one point. With five minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Green Bay offense had just 13 points.

Even going back to the Saints game, where the Packers won 34-0, the passing game was disjointed, particularly in the second half. Over this latest three-game stretch against New Orleans, Minnesota, and Chicago, Love is completing just 60% of his throws, which ranks 28th out of 36 eligible quarterbacks. His 6.2 yards per attempt during that span also ranks 28th, and Love is 22nd in passer rating.

“You always would like to get No. 1 open,” said LaFleur of the passing game. “I mean, that’s the idea. And sometimes it can be difficult, depending on how many different coverages teams play, where you’re calling something for a certain coverage and if you get the look you’re usually in pretty good shape and if you get something different, you have to have an answer.

“And that’s why I think all-purpose plays are at a premium. You always want all-purpose plays where, at a bare minimum, you can get a checkdown and certain teams might do different things to you that can limit your possibilities for those checkdowns, but I think just goes it all in the planning portion of it, just making sure we have sound football plays and at least you have an outlet to go with the football.”

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Along with the offensive struggles, in two consecutive games, we’ve seen the defense not able to come up with that crucial stop late, while the Minnesota passing game picked apart the Packers over the middle of the field as the pass rush faltered. The special teams unit, meanwhile, surrendered a punt return in the most recent contest.

While some of the problems that the Packers are currently facing are more prominent than others, improvement in all phases is needed if this team is going to flip the switch and change their trajectory as they head into the playoffs.

“I just think there’s a lot of things,” LaFleur said. “There was a lot of things we can work on in every phase. There’s got to be a standard for how you play every snap, and when it’s not getting to that standard, typically what’s going to happen is you’re not going to get the results that you want. I would say that showed up yesterday in the game.”

Overcoming these woes begins with refocusing on the process rather than the results–something that LaFleur said he challenged the team to focus on. The logic behind this is that if the process–the on-field fundamentals and details of how each player goes about their day–is consistently done correctly, then the positive results will follow.

The problem with being so consumed in the outcome is that the details required to get to that point can be forgotten about. In addition to that, even when the result ends up being positive, that doesn’t mean the process of getting to that point was correct. LaFleur noted two plays from Sunday’s game that ended positively, but process-wise, weren’t executed correctly. And it’s those errors in the postseason that can send a team home early.

“You just can’t get consumed by the result,” LaFleur said. “It’s got to be the process, and we’ve got to make sure that we do a great job of coaching the detail, and then it’s got to get, everything has to happen on the practice field. That’s where you improve, and that’s what gives you the confidence to go out there on gameday and perform at a high level.”

How the Packers got to this point in recent weeks is obviously a bit of an unknown, otherwise, as LaFleur said, if he had that answer, they wouldn’t be sitting in this position where conversations around refocusing on the process and finer details have to take place.

In an effort to get things back on track, LaFleur said that he would tweak the practice schedule. A catalyst behind the Packers’ second-half surge in 2023 was the ramping up of competition in practice–or more good-on-good–and live reps. There is now going to be more of that this week.

“There’s some things we’re going to tweak with our practice schedule,” LaFleur said. “A lot of times when you get to this point of the season, you want to take a little bit off their bodies, so we’ve had a little bit more walk-through. I think we’ve got to get back to practicing on a daily basis.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to do the same number of reps we did Week 1 of the season, but I think the consistency of which you practice allows you to go out and play a little bit more consistent on Sunday.”

The 2023 Packers and the 2024 Packers are on two very different trajectories entering the playoffs. One was riding a wave of momentum, operating as one of the better units in football, while the other is on a two game losing streak and needing to refocus on going back to the basics.

While LaFleur dismissed the notion of game-to-game momentum being a big factor entering the playoffs, time is no longer an ally for the Packers as it’s win or go home. They must flip the switch this week because the same persistent issues continue to plague this team, a stingy Eagles’ defense, and their high-powered offense will capitalize on those miscues, just as the Vikings and Bears did.

“That’s just life in this league because if you’re living in the past you’re probably not going to have a very good future,” LaFleur said. “So you gotta learn from every–whether it’s positive or negative and, unfortunately, a lot of times you learn more from the tough lessons than you do from your successes. But you gotta be resilient, you gotta keep turning the page and just get back to work.”

Packers without WR Christian Watson for playoffs

Paul Bretl | 1/6/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers will have to make any potential playoff run without wide receiver Christian Watson.

It was reported by Ian Rapoport that Watson suffered an ACL injury and other potential damage in his left knee during Sunday’s loss to the Chicago Bears. Head coach Matt LaFleur would confirm on Monday afternoon that Watson would be out for the remainder of this season.

Watson had missed the Packers’ previous game against Minnesota while dealing a right knee bruise–an injury that he had suffered against the New Orleans Saints the week prior. During the week leading up to the Chicago game, Watson was a non-participant in practice on Wednesday and Thursday before returning to practice in a limited capacity on Friday.

He was initially listed as questionable for the Week 18 matchup, but Romeo Doubs being added to the injury report on Saturday with an illness and then not being able to play on Sunday did impact the decision to start Watson, said LaFleur after the loss.

“We talked about it all, to be honest with you and I never wanna say one event impacts the other event,” said Matt LaFleur on Monday about the decision to play Watson. “He came to us I think on Friday and just said, ‘Hey, if I go and practice today, can I be up?’ and at the time with just — he was gonna be limited regardless and we were going into this game with just, alright, you got limited amount of snaps when that spot became available, but there was a lot of discussion into it.

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t even his knee that was bothering him, so it’s just an unfortunate circumstance that transpired and I never wanna blame one event on the other, but there was a lot of discussion, I’ll leave it at that, in terms of just yeah, we were very aware of just having him on a limited basis and we didn’t even get to that really.”

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In what is a deep wide receiver room, there still aren’t any other pass-catchers on this Packers’ roster who can bring the combination of size and speed to the equation like Watson can.

The obvious loss for the offense is the lack of big play ability that will now be missing with Watson’s ability to stretch the field. On the season, Watson had caught 29 passes for 620 yards and two touchdowns.

This included a four-game stretch from Weeks 11-14, where Watson hauled in 10-of-16 passes for 331 yards at a whopping 33.1 yards per reception. Watson was targeted downfield on 37.5% of the passes thrown his way–the eighth-highest rate among receivers–and his 21.4 yards per catch is the third-most in football this season.

“Christian is a different type of player,” Josh Jacobs said after the Minnesota game. “He’s got attributes and abilities that you can’t coach and you really can’t find anywhere.”

However, Watson’s impact on this Packers’ offense goes beyond the stat sheet as well. For one, he’s a very willing blocker in the run game, but Watson can win at all levels of the field, with his speed and route-running ability helping to create separation on those short to intermediate routes, which then have the potential to be turned into big gains as we saw late versus Chicago on a 60-yard catch and run over the middle.

And with that big play ability that he possesses, there’s a certain gravity that he has that draws defenders to him. This can then open up opportunities for other pass catchers by creating advantageous matchups and more space to operate in.

“It’s a big-time loss just his presence on the field alone, he’s so versatile in his ability to play multiple positions,” said LaFleur on Monday. “You can put him at the X, the F, the Z. You can move him all over the place. Obviously he’s got an element in terms of his size and speed that’s tough replicate. There’s not many built like him around the league.”

But on the flip side, not having Watson’s presence on the field can impact how opposing defenses defend Green Bay. If there isn’t a real fear of being beaten over the top, that then allows defenses to shrink the field and play closer to the line of scrimmage. This makes things more condensed over the middle and on short to intermediate routes and can even impact the running game with more defenders near the line of scrimmage.

We saw an example of this in the recent game against Minnesota, whose secondary did a very good job of taking away any downfield attempts for the Packers, who were without Watson, and overall, that was one element that contributed to the offensive woes we saw from Green Bay in that contest.

“There is a couple plays,” LaFleur said of the Vikings game, “I would say in that game, not to rehash the past but, yeah, where you’re anticipating something where you might have … You just never want to have stagnant routes – routes that are sitting down, not running away from people – because they’re probably going to be gloved if your initial concept does not work.”

There is no replacing Watson in this offense because even with the wide variety of skill sets that the Packers have at receiver, no one else can impact the game–with or without the ball–quite like he does. So the challenge for Matt LaFleur and the offense as a whole will be finding different ways to overcome his absence, specifically, maintaining the downfield ability with the positive trickle-down effect that element can have, and doing so against a very stingy Philadelphia pass defense.

“They’re humming right now,” LaFleur said of the Eagles’ defense. “It’s a very talented defense. You can tell that they’ve got everybody on the same page. It’s much more difficult to get some of those explosive gains, so I would tell ya that it’s gonna be very important for us, for our offense, to be efficient, stay ahead of the sticks. They got superstars on every level of the defense, so we’re gonna have to make sure we’re doing a good job of taking what’s there and churning out and fighting for every inch on the field on Sunday.”

‘Stagnant’ passing game proving too much for Packers to overcome

Paul Bretl | 1/6/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers are going to enter the 2024 postseason trending in a much different direction than what the 2023 version of this team did, and a key contributing factor to the recent struggles that we’ve seen is due to the inconsistencies of the passing game.

“It hasn’t been good,” said Matt LaFleur of the passing game. “Credit them (the Bears). They did a nice job and it is extremely frustrating right now, so I think that’s something that we’re gonna have to take a deep dive into and we have been. It’s not like it’s anything new, but we gotta do a better job.”

From Week 11 through Week 15, both Jordan Love and the offense appeared to be heating up just as they did a season ago, which included four straight games of scoring at least 30 points. However, since that New Orleans game, where the offense still managed to score 34 points, the passing attack has felt disjointed.

Over that three game stretch against New Orleans, Minnesota, and Chicago, Love is completing just 60% of his throws, which ranks 28th out of 36 eligible quarterbacks. His 6.2 yards per attempt during that span also ranks 28th and Love is 22nd in passer rating.

While he’s taken care of the football with no interceptions and no turnover-worthy plays, according to PFF, he’s also thrown only two touchdown passes.

“I definitely don’t think it’s a problem, but if this was a playoff game, we’d be going home right now,” said Jordan Love postgame. “We’ve got to find a way to make those plays, execute and stay on the field as offense, put up more points than we did tonight. We’ve got to find ways to just be better because like we said in the locker room, if this was a playoff game, we’re going home. So just not good enough.”

Of course, when things aren’t going quite right in the passing game, all eyes fall on the quarterback position, with Love mentioning post-game following the Bears’ game that it all feels inconsistent right now.

“It’s definitely been a little stagnant,” Love said of the passing game. “It just feels like we’re just missing right now. Missing on some of these opps that obviously before we were hitting on. Like I’ve said before, it’s not like we’re far off. It’s not like everything we’re running is just not working. Stuffs there. We’ve just got to go out there and make plays. We’ve got to be great, like I said, with accuracy, ball placement, everything, so I think it’s a lot of stuff well clean up.”

However, in a nuanced game like football, it’s not only Love’s play that has taken a step back, but the receivers are out of sync as well. Following the game against Minnesota, Matt LaFleur mentioned that the Vikings’ heavy usage of man coverage in that contest was unexpected. When that happens, it can throw off the timing of the route and the need for the receivers to win those one-on-one matchups becomes heightened and if that doesn’t happen, then Love has nowhere to go with the football.

“I would just say like for me personnally I gotta be better overall,” said Jayden Reed at his locker on Sunday. “I haven’t been playing good ball lately. If we want progress in the playoffs that not how we gotta play. We gotta play better than we did today. Just pounding in on the details, protecting the ball that’s protecting the team, first and foremost, that’s on me. I gotta be better. If I want to be a leader and good player in this league, I gotta be able to do that.”

In two of these last three games, the Packers were without Christian Watson against Minnesota and for most of the Bears’ game, while Romeo Doubs didn’t play against Chicago either. That, of course, is going to be a factor in the on-field play. However, for a position group where its strength lies in its numbers, the Packers need more from that room as well as Love, particularly with it looking like Watson won’t be able to play this postseason.

“Execution, really,” added Reed about the inconsistent play. “Everybody doing their 1/11th. Just completing the pass. We had some drops along the way, you just gotta finish the catch sometimes. Just everything. Everything goes hand in hand.”

The run game has often been the catalyst for the Packers’ offensive success this season. However, in today’s NFL, when that is the only consistent method for picking up yards, that’s a difficult way for an offense to have to live on a regular basis. The margin for error becomes extremely small because any sort of run that doesn’t pick up four-plus yards, puts the offense behind the sticks and in predictable passing situations that, right now, the Packers offense doesn’t have the ability to routinely dig themselves out of.

Awaiting the Packers in the playoffs is a set of NFC offenses that have been among the most dynamic in football. Philadelphia, Detroit, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay, all rank in the top 10 of the NFL this season in points per game and yards per pass attempt. Obviously, the hope would be that the Packers’ defense could limit those opponents, but that’s also a tall task to accomplish over four quarters. Realistically, the Packers’ offense is going to have to put up points and getting off to another dreaded slow start could very well doom their playoff chances.

Although things haven’t gone all that smoothly for the passing game, Love doesn’t believe that the offense is all that far off, either. However, the opportunity to establish momentum has vanished and Green Bay is now at the point where a switch is going to have to be flipped. Time to course correct is no longer on their side.

“We just have to get back to what we do,” Love said. “Get back to the basics and the fundamentals and be crisp. As we go through the week, be dialed in and locked into all the little details. We can’t let anything slip. It just comes down to that. I mean, that’s where you start throughout the week, and then you have to go out there and just make those plays. Like I said, we’re not far off, we just have to hit.”

Lacking momentum, Packers will have to flip the switch heading into playoffs

Paul Bretl | 1/5/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The 2023 Packers entered the postseason on a three-game winning streak and essentially in playoff mode having to win those final games to even have a chance of continuing to play into January.

This year’s Packers team, with two more victories in the win column, will enter the postseason on a two-game losing streak and frequently still dealing with the same issues that have plagued them for much of the season.

“A disappointing loss, for sure,” said Jordan Love after the game. “I think everybody in the locker room feels that. Its obviously not the note we wanted to end on with a loss to the Vikings and then turn around and a loss here. It’s the reality of our situation.

“We’ve got to find a way to improve this week, get better and look forward to seeing Philly. It’s a disappointing finish, a disappointing loss , to end that game right there. But it’s the same thing. Theres a lot of areas that we can clean up and got to get better at. The same kind of message is going through that locker room. Weve got to go out and make these plays and execute. We just have to be better.”

With the regular season behind them, the Packers still haven’t consistently been able to put it all together this season–or at least not for extended periods–and they’ve now reached the point in the season where it’s now or never.

“A couple guys (Xavier McKinney and Rashan Gary) spoke in front of the team and said, ‘Put your pride aside and just work,’ said Sean Rhayn. “Not that we haven’t been working, but coming off two losses, I think we’ve got to get back to the bare bones of coming in, doing our drills, doing them crisp and cool. Honest work is what we’re going to need.”

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In Sunday’s loss to the Bears–Chicago’s first win in the last 12 games against Green Bay–the run game was again productive, totaling 183 yards at 5.5 yards per rush, but it didn’t result in points for the offense. With under five minutes to go in the game, the Packers still had just 13 points before a forced fumble by Carrington Valentine set Green Bay up in scoring position.

While the run game was producing, it’s difficult to put up points in today’s NFL when that is your only means for moving the football. The margin for error then becomes extremely small in those instances, with the offense often in a hole when in those pesky long down-and-distance situations when there isn’t a positive gain on first down.

“I think everybody’s just got to lock in on what we want to do and what we want to accomplish and know that one loss, you’re done, you’re going home,” Josh Jacobs said. “So the sense of urgency and everything is up. We’ve just got to know that coming in this whole week, coming in to prepare, everybody’s got to be willing to give 110% of themselves to what we want to accomplish.”

A steady passing game is needed to complement the run game and the Packers didn’t have that. Of course, not having Jordan Love under center from the second quarter on was an obvious factor in that, but even before he exited the game with an elbow injury, the passing attack was disjointed–again.

Love was 7-for-12 passing for a modest 69 yards–19 of which came on one completion. Malik Willis was 10-for-13 passing for 136 yards, with a long of 41 yards on a completion to Malik Heath. If we take the 6.6 yards per pass attempt that the Packers collectively averaged and compare it to the NFL’s season-long numbers, that figure would rank 31st.

This follows a performance where Love had fewer than 100 passing yards through three quarters against the Minnesota Vikings. As is the case in football, there is never one answer to the problem–it’s a lack of consistency in the pass-catchers getting open, it’s dropped passes, off-target throws, indecisiveness, and the overall timing just not quite being there.

“It’s definitely been a little stagnant,” Love said. “It just feels like were just missing right now. Missing on some of these opps that obviously before we were hitting on. Like I’ve said before, it’s not like were far off. It’s not like everything were running is just not working. Stuffs there. We’ve just got to go out there and make plays. We’ve got to be great, like I said, with accuracy, ball placement, everything, so I think it’s a lot of stuff well clean up.

“I definitely don’t think it’s a problem,” Love would add, “but if this was a playoff game, we’d be going home right now. We’ve got to find a way to make those plays, execute and stay on the field as offense, put up more points than we did tonight. We’ve got to find ways to just be better because like we said in the locker room, if this was a playoff game, we’re going home. So just not good enough.”

In addition to not having Love for a large portion of the game, the Packers saw Christian Watson exit with an injury early and Josh Jacobs had just six carries. In addition to that, Green Bay opted for continuity in the secondary by starting Kitan Oladapo at safety so Javon Bullard could play the nickel. That may not have been a decision that was made–giving the Day 3 rookie his first-ever start–had this been a playoff game.

But on the flip side, just about every one of the Packers’ usual starters played the entire game against a Bears team riding a 10 game losing streak. And perhaps most concerning is that, as mentioned, many of the same problems continue to persist. The passing game is currently out of whack and in all three of the Packers’ post-bye week losses to Detroit, Minnesota, and Chicago, the defense couldn’t get a late stop.

“It’s us vs. us,” said Xavier McKinney. “We need to correct what we need to correct because these are self-inflicted wounds. It’s not anything that the other team is doing to beat us. It’s the things we’re doing to beat ourselves. We gotta get it corrected.”

Certainly not helping things was the special teams unit giving up a punt return for a touchdown, not to mention that It’s also not only the players who have to execute better, but Matt LaFleur, admittedly, wasn’t at his best either. An indecisive moment about whether to kick the field goal late or go for it on fourth down resulted in the Packers’ using a timeout, which left the Bears’ offense with additional time.

“At the end of the game, that’s squarely on me,” LaFleur said. “Just got caught in a situation where we were planning on going for it. They felt like Brandon could make that field goal. Hindsight’s 20/20, and I wish I wouldn’t have taken the timeout because it gave them obviously way too much time to go down and operate. Like I told the team, that’s on me, that can’t happen. So we’ve got to wipe this as soon as possible. It’s a new season now. Everybody’s 0-0.”

During the bye week, GM Brian Gutekunst mentioned that the goal is to be playing your best football come January. Last year’s team was doing just that, on the aforementioned three game winning streak while in playoff mode, and operating on the field as one of the more effective offenses in the game, despite having to claw their way to nine wins.

This year, that isn’t the case. A switch is going to have to be flipped if the Packers are going to find any playoff success. While a year ago at this time, the team was riding a wave of momentum into Dallas, this time, Green Bay will have to head into Philadelphia in search of it.

So how do the Packers accomplish that?

“I don’t think anybody has to do anything out of the ordinary, any superhuman effort,” LaFleur said. “It’s just, guys have got to be dialed in and doing their responsibility. We always talk about doing your 1/11th and it’s so true in these playoff games because the margins are thin enough in this league as it is. Each week, it can go either way. But I would say specifically with the playoffs, when it comes to that, the energy, you’ve got to stay focused, you’ve got to stay dialed in, you’ve got to play it like truly play each play as if it were your last. And that’s the approach we’ve got to take.

“And we’ve got to have a great week of preparation, no doubt about it. Guys have got to rest up, we’ve got to recover, some guys are pretty beat up right now, and who knows when we play, so that could affect things as well. Everybody has to handle their business, take care of what they need to take care of and we’ve got to go and put our best foot forward.”

With the talent that this team has, and as we’ve seen from this group both this season and last, they do certainly have the ability to flip the switch. This season has also been far from a disaster–I mean, the Packers did get to 11 wins and are top 10 in scoring on both sides of the football, and not that long ago, put up 30-plus points in five straight games. It’s not as if things have been all bad by any means.

Inside the locker room, the belief that a run can be made still very much exists.

“I got all the confidence,” said McKinney about getting things corrected. “We got the right guys to do it. We just gotta do it, though. Like I said, we have the guys and we got the coaches. We got everything that we need right here. Mentally, we have to be ready to lock in and ready to go. That’s as simple as it gets.”

However, having said that, we’ve seen middling teams get bounced from the playoffs early and others who finished the regular season strong go on a run. The current lack of momentum hasn’t sealed Green Bay’s 2024 playoff fate by any means, but getting back on track, correcting the same issues that have pestered them for much of the year, and finding that elusive consistency while doing all of that on the road against the best teams in the NFC, is obviously a tall task.

“The guys had some strong words in the locker room,” added LaFleur. “I think their mind will be in the right place, and it all start with our energy, how we attack it coming into the building. We said this way back when during training camp, it’s, ‘Standards over feelings.’ And there’s a standard that we have to approach each day with and you’ve got to come in with that energy and just attack it. And put your best foot forward. Because this is like March Madness from here on out. I mean, anything can happen, and you’ve got to be sharp and you’ve got to be detailed.”

With playoffs on horizon, how will Packers approach playing time vs Bears?

Paul Bretl | 1/4/2025

GREEN BAY, Wis. — There are two paths that the Packers could go down this week as they prepare for their regular-season finale against the Chicago Bears. Green Bay could rest their key starters in preparation for the playoffs or play everyone in an effort to right the ship following last week’s performance.

So which path will the Packers choose to head down? Like many things in the life, the answer probably lies somewhere in the middle.

From a preparation standpoint this week, LaFleur hasn’t given the players any sort of inkling that they may not play a full game on Sunday. Everyone is preparing to go the full four quarters.

“I think we’ve got to go in with the mindset that everybody can expect to play the entire game, and we’re going to play a football game to win the game, and that’s how we always approach it and always will approach it,” Matt LaFleur said. “Some guys could have less snaps than they normally might get, but that is to be determined.”

This is a different approach than what we saw during the 2021 season, the last time the Packers were in a similar situation, where they have the luxury to rest players in the final game of the season if that’s what LaFleur chooses to do.

At that time, LaFleur opted to tell his players during the week that they would only play the first half of that Week 18 finale against Detroit. Two weeks later in the NFC Divisional round, following Green Bay’s playoff bye, the Packers would suffer an early playoff exit to the San Francisco 49ers.

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Now, of course, LaFleur doesn’t believe that the decision two weeks prior to tell his players that they wouldn’t play the second half of a meaningless Week 18 game was the reason the Packers lost to the 49ers. But, in hindsight, it did leave a sour taste in his mouth and has led to a different approach this time around.

“It left a little bit of I’d say a sour taste,” LaFleur said of that loss to the 49ers. “I can speak for myself in the situation. Maybe our players didn’t feel that way, but it’s just not the way you want to go into it. I think that sometimes can be a little overblown, but you’d like to put your best foot forward every time you go out on the field, no matter who you’re playing, what the circumstances are, you always want to win the game. You feel like you get a little bit of momentum from that. But bottom line, win, lose or draw, you’ve got to get yourself ready to play. That’s for every game in this league.”

This week’s game isn’t completely meaningless either with the Packers still having the opportunity to clinch the NFC’s sixth seed with a win and loss by Washington against a very short-handed Dallas Cowboys team.

Not to say that being the sixth versus seventh seed doesn’t matter, but either way the Packers are going to have to face several difficult road environments if they hope to make a deep playoff run. So instead, the focus should be on the bigger picture, which is re-establishing last week’s lost momentum and carrying that into the postseason.

After what LaFleur called a “sloppy” performance this past week in Minnesota, in all phases there is “a lot to clean up,” he would add. Obviously, nearing the 12 win mark, there has been a lot of good this season, but the Packers are still chasing that elusive consistency, particularly on offense. And against those top-flight NFC contenders, it’s often been the same issues that have plagued Green Bay for much of the season that rears its ugly head in those pivotal games.

So, let’s circle back to the question, how does LaFleur manage Sunday’s game? As of now, it would appear that anyone who is healthy is preparing to play a full game. However, I would anticipate that decision to be fluid.

If Dallas is keeping things close with Washington and the Packers have the opportunity to get the sixth seed, I would anticipate that LaFleur will keep his foot on the gas.

In another scenario, if Washington is in control and the Packers put together two strong quarters of football, then I wouldn’t be surprised to see key starters exit the game early on. On the flip side of that, however, regardless of how the Washington game is going, if it’s another slow start by the Packers, if it were up to me, I’d keep the starters into the second half in an effort to put some good football on film heading into the postseason.

“I think that’s important,” said LaFleur about having a good performance going into the playoffs. “I think every time you go out on the field, it’s about you. You playing your best, controlling things that are within your control. Obviously, I think the prep’s been on point and I think that’s where, is the starting point.”

Another part of the equation when it comes to determining playing time is the injury report. As LaFleur pointed out early in the week, with two practice squad elevations, there are 55 players eligible to compete on gamedays and only 48 can be active.

When taking into account that Green Bay has two players who are questionable for Sunday’s game with injuries and four others who have already been ruled out, from a pure numbers standpoint, there will be starters who play all four quarters in this game regardless of how it unfolds or what happens in the Washington game.

“Part of the challenge is, I read what – I heard what Belichick said about this situation the other day, and I think there’s a lot of truth in that as well,” LaFleur said. “How do you pick and choose who you sit. Does that mean certain guys are more important than others? Because I think this is the ultimate team sport, and we need everybody.

“Certainly when you have more depth at certain positions, that gives you a little bit more flexibility in terms of what route you go, but at the same time, when you’ve got a, I mean our injury list, I wouldn’t say it’s a short list. We’ve got a lot of guys on there, and so that definitely limits your ability in terms of what you want to do going into the game.”

To state the obvious, a full four quarter performance on Sunday against the struggling Chicago Bears, isn’t all of a sudden going to mean that everything is fixed for the Packers. However, there is certainly something to be said for putting together a good performance and carrying that momentum into the playoffs.

During the bye week, GM Brian Gutekunst discussed the importance of playing your best football late in the season. The 2023 Packers are a prime example of this. While on paper, Green Bay was 9-8 and the seventh seed in the NFC, on the football field, especially on offense, they were operating as one of the better teams in the game and that had them on the cusp of going to the NFC Championship game.

“I definitely think there’s a part with how we play, how we finish a season, kind of that momentum that we carry into the postseason, for sure,” said Love. “I think play-wise you always want to play clean football.”

Keisean Nixon’s uncommon versatility has proved to be valuable for Packers’ secondary

Paul Bretl | 1/4/2025

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Keisean Nixon’s versatility and ability to play inside and out has helped provide the Packers’ cornerback room with some stability, with the secondary navigating various injuries this season as well as up and down play.

“I had a couple guys in college that have been a nickel or a safety, or a dime and a safety,” said defensive backs coach Derrick Ansley. “Never a guy that really went from cornerback inside to nickel. It’s a testament to Keisean’s ability to compete, because nickel is totally drastic, different from corner.”

Nixon was the Packers starting nickel cornerback during the 2023 season. However, in Week 4 of this year, we saw him see his first extensive action on the boundary as Erick Stokes struggled early on and Carrington Valentine navigated injuries along with up-and-down play of his own.

That playing time out-wide quickly escalated from Nixon only being lined up outside when the Packers were in their base 4-3 defense to being a full-time boundary cornerback when everyone was healthy.

This transition back to the outside, so to speak, began during training camp. As we got further into August, there would be more snaps during those practices for Nixon on the boundary–although he still primarily lined up out of the slot. But early on for defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and defensive backs coach Derrick Ansley, they realized that Nixon had a unique skill set that would allow him to play both inside and out, which obviously, is quite valuable.

“When me and Jeff both got here, we’re both DB guys,” said Ansley. “We picked Brian’s (Gutekunst) brain on his skillset, and once we got on the grass with him in OTAs, I’m like, ‘Yeah. This guy’s got some unique skills.’

“So we started to dibble and dabble in that and we knew Bull was going to be a good player somewhere, and we kind of had an idea that Evan could kind of run the show back there with X, so to get our best people on the field, you kind of move those guys around in camp to see who’s your best five, who’s your best six and he’s done a really good job of investing in himself and learning that position and he’s going to get better every week.”

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While from the outside perspective, it looked like a big change with Nixon moving from the nickel to the boundary, for him, it was a relatively smooth transition as he moved back to what is his more natural position. With Las Vegas his first three NFL seasons, Nixon was a boundary cornerback. It was in Green Bay when he moved to nickel in 2023 where the change took place, but it was a move that Nixon was happy to make because it allowed him to see to the field.

“I played corner my whole career. I never played nickel till I got to the Packers, for real,” said Nixon at his locker on Thursday. “When I was with the Raiders my third year, I think played one and a half games at nickel and then when I got here, that was the only way that I was going to get on the field playing nickel.

“So I just had to learn it and then I started playing it but corner is my more natural position that’s where I want to be and they love me here playing it, so I’m comfortable, I’m fine with it, make plays at it.”

That versatility Nixon possesses has been extremely valuable for the Packers, particularly over the last month as they’ve navigated injuries at the safety position in addition to Javon Bullard missing time as well. In some instances, like against Seattle and New Orleans, Nixon went into that game knowing he’d be starting at the nickel.

But in this most recent game against Minnesota, where Zayne Anderson exited early which forced the Packers to do some shuffling in the secondary, Nixon had to move from the boundary to the slot mid-game.

Although, whether playing inside or out, a player is labeled as a cornerback, those are two completely different positions. From the slot, the fight comes to you a lot more quickly, and there is less time to react. Also, being able to help in the run game and be utilized as a Blitzer is part of the job requirement inside. Whereas out wide, those cornerbacks are on an island.

“Just the ball, the timing of the ball comes to you fast,” said Nixon on playing the nickel vs. the boundary. “You don’t really have time to look at–like read formations in nickel. You gotta react. At corner you can read routes and you have timing and breaking on balls. It’s just different.”

As the season has progressed and Nixon has gotten more reps, naturally, he’s steadily improved. Hafley has utilized Nixon as a blitzer, resulting in nine pressures this season, including one in each of the last four games. Nixon has also been a very reliable tackler, missing only eight of his 90 attempts, according to PFF.

Then in coverage, he’s done an excellent job of limiting explosive plays and YAC opportunities, holding opponents to just 9.1 yards per catch. Nixon has also forced six pass breakups and come away with one interception.

“I think what he’s done is, I think he’s taken his game up another level in terms of every year, he’s a guy that’s shown the ability and has gotten better and more consistent in his football in terms of him going out there and performing,” said Matt LaFleur. “So Kei is a guy that we’ve got a lot of confidence in, and he’s shown the versatility to play not on the inside, but to go out on the outside. And not everybody can do that.”

With Jaire Alexander undergoing knee surgery and likely out for the remainder of the season, Carrington Valentine and Eric Stokes will have to play large roles in helping the Packers find any sort of success. And for Nixon, he’s going to continue to be the CB1 in that room, a role he will absolutely embrace, regardless of whether he’s asked to line up from the nickel or the boundary.

“He embraces the challenge, he wants the challenge,” added Ansley. “He wants the hard downs. He looks at himself as CB1, so he wants everything that comes with that. He’s definitely a guy that can go inside and outside, obviously. Just a testament to him how he works throughout the week to learn both spots.

“So we’re very proud of him. The fact he can do both jobs makes us deeper in the secondary.”

‘Another level’ out there for Packers’ rookie LB Edgerrin Cooper

Paul Bretl | 1/3/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Since Edgerrin Cooper first arrived in Green Bay for rookie minicamp this past spring, the level of speed and athleticism he possesses has been evident. But now over the last month, we are seeing those natural abilities coupled with increased comfort in Jeff Hafley’s defensive scheme and what he’s being asked to do result in what have become routine splash plays.

After missing three games with a hamstring injury, Cooper returned in Week 15 against Seattle and didn’t miss a beat, totaling three pressures, including one sack, while making four solo tackles, and in coverage, allowing just two receptions on six targets with an interception and a pass breakup.

For the second time this season, Cooper was Named the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Week for that performance and is the first Packers’ player to accomplish this feat since Clay Matthews did it during the 2010 season and Cooper is the first Packers’ rookie to win the award twice since its inception in 1984.

“Coop’s a hell of an athlete, man,” said Matt LaFleur after the Seattle game. “He’s a really good football player. I think he’s just scratching the surface of what he could become in this league.”

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The following week against the New Orleans Saints, Cooper would lead the Packers’ defense in tackles despite playing only 38 of the 55 defensive snaps. Then most recently, in this past game, Green Bay gave Cooper his largest workload of the season, with him being on the field for 71 of the defense’s 72 defensive snaps, showcasing the growing trust and confidence that the coaching staff has in the rookie.

Among all linebackers in football over these last three games, Cooper ranks 11th in quarterback pressures, 11th in solo tackles, he’s second in stops–or plays that constitute a loss for the offense, according to PFF–and he’s 14th in passer rating when targeted. Or in short, pick a category and you’ll likely find Cooper ranked among the best.

“I get it,” said Hafley. “I totally see what everybody sees. If you turn on the TV copy of that guy, you can make a 12-play cut-up and it’s just like, ‘Whoa.’ The way he runs people down, the way he weaves under gaps and shows up behind the line of scrimmage, it might look like the ball is going over there and somehow he comes inside and beats it and dives and makes the play before he’s supposed to…He’s got a lot of natural ability, and he’s getting better and better.”

Clearly, the numbers speak for themselves, but oftentimes, it’s how Cooper makes those plays that stand out. With 4.51 speed, he has the ability to shoot gaps, take unique angles to the ball, and erase space between him and the ball carrier that doesn’t appear possible.

With that unique skill set comes versatility for Cooper and flexibility for Hafley in how he utilizes him and how he constructs the gameplan. One area where we see this is in Cooper’s usage as a blitzer, both in the number of opportunities he’s had and in what he’s asked to do on those pressures, whether it be delayed, a simulated pressure as a disguise, on stunts orchestrated with the defensive line, or where Hafely sends him from.

Cooper will enter Week 18 blitzing at the 18th-highest rate among linebackers this season, and he’s won those reps at the eighth-highest rate, per PFF’s metrics. However, as Hafley described on Thursday, there’s still more out there for him when it comes to getting after the quarterback.

“There’s a lot of things we can do to maximize his pass rush, and I think we’re just scratching the surface,” Hafley said on Thursday. “We did some fun things with him today that he looked pretty good at doing. But I’m not going to tell you what it is. We’ll have to wait until we see it on film one of these days.”

The trickle-down effect to the rest of the defense of having a player with Cooper’s speed in the middle is that it not only affords Hafley flexibility in how he utilizes Cooper, but also in what he asks of other defenders as well.

With that aforementioned speed, there’s an ability to operate in space, and as a coverage defender that Cooper possesses, that’s now a part of the equation. Being able to cover as much ground as Cooper can limits YAC opportunities and can shrink passing windows for the quarterback in the blink of an eye, which can then impact what is asked of other position groups, specifically the defensive backs, as Xavier McKinney highlighted after the Jacksonville game.

“He played the most plays he’s ever played last week,” added Hafley, “and that’s the most that we’ve ever put on him, and I think he’s going to grow from that, and I think what you’re starting to see too is we are going to be able to bit by bit as he grows, put him in some pretty fun positions. Another guy, what a great draft pick and what a great person. He loves ball. He’s got a really bright future.”

Now, with all that said, as impressive as Cooper has been, he’s far from a finished product as well. His performance against Minnesota is an example of this. While there were again those splash plays, which included four tackles for loss, his overall performance was a “mixed bag,” as LaFleur put it, with the Vikings passing offense finding quite a bit of success over the middle of the field.

“I thought he made a lot of splash plays,” said LaFleur after the Vikings game, “but there was a lot of plays that we gotta make that really hurt us as well. So I’d say it was a mixed bag. I think he’s so talented and I think the sky’s the limit for him and I love having him. But it’s just the consistency of which you play. I mean, so you just gotta make sure you’re dialed in and we know he’s an incredible talent and he’s going to make some splash plays and he did.”

Not to be forgotten is that Cooper is still a rookie, who is navigating the learning curve that comes with making the jump from college to the NFL, and elongating that learning process has been the time he’s missed in training camp in the regular season due to injuries.

“I just think in time, you’ve just got to be careful with how much you give them early, and then it just like eventually you fill up a glass and everything just spills out, so you’ve just got to go slow with it, and I think he’s progressed well,” Hafley said. “He’s another guy, though, that he’s been injured and he hasn’t practice das much and now he’s starting to get into it, so hopefully that consistency goes.”

The talent that Cooper possesses is undeniable and we’ve seen the huge impact that he can make on a football game over these last three weeks. However, because he still is such a young player, as dynamic as he’s been, there is still a lot more out there for Cooper and what he can offer this Packers team–and, for the Packers, that’s the exciting component of all this.

“I think there’s another level there that I think he can continue to take his game to,” LaFleur said.

Packers’ run defense looking for redemption in rematch vs Bears

Paul Bretl | 1/1/2025

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers run defense will look for redemption this time around when they face the Chicago Bears in Week 18.

The last time these two teams met in Week 11, Caleb Williams and the Chicago ground game ran wild against this Green Bay defense. The Bears finished that game totaling 179 yards on the ground at 5.3 yards per rush. D’Andre Swift was responsible for 71 of those yards, with 39 coming from one touchdown run. However, Chicago’s most efficient ball carrier was quarterback Caleb Williams, who tallied 70 yards on the ground at 7.8 yards per rush attempt.

“You look at the tape, and it wasn’t our best,” said Jeff Hafley a few days after the first matchup. “We did some really good things and then we had opportunities to finish some plays, we had opportunities to kinda put the game away here and there, and we were just right there and we just didn’t get the job done, so when you look at the film – win or lose, fortunately we were winning this game – you look hard, you make the corrections.”

Some of that damage was done by Williams going off-script and leaving the pocket when there wasn’t anywhere to go with the ball in the passing game. But there were other instances where it was designed runs with Williams that hurt the Packers–something that Chicago hadn’t put on tape much under previous offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, and that admittedly caught the Green Bay defense off guard.

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The trickle-down effect of an offense having a strong run game to lean on is that it oftentimes keeps them ahead of the sticks and in short down-and-distance situations. This can then help create opportunities in the passing game and manageable third downs, and it’s those conversions that lead to long drives.

The Bears in this previous matchup were a very effective 12-for-19 on third and fourth downs and converted 23 first downs in total. As a result, they then held the ball for nearly 13 more minutes than the Packers, with the Chicago offense running 25 more plays than what Green Bay did. Williams, meanwhile, was an efficient 23-of-31 passing at 7.5 yards per attempt–both figures well-above his season average in each category.

“It comes down in that game we did a really poor job setting edges,” said Hafley on Thursday. “I mean, the ball got out on us on the perimeter in that game and we gave up the big score and we gave up some perimeter runs in that game and even on screens we were ducking inside.”

This performance by the Packers’ run defense in Chicago, however, has largely been the outlier for Green Bay. For the most part this season, the Packers have been quite stout against the run. The 4.0 yards per carry that the Packers are giving up is the fifth-lowest mark in the NFL. According to ESPN’s run stop rate metric, the Packers rank seventh entering Week 18.

Since the bye week, this includes facing several dynamic rushing attacks, including Christian McCaffrey in San Francisco, De’Von Achane with Miami, the one-two punch in Detroit with David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, and most recently, Minnesota’s Aaron Jones.

“Allowing us not to play blocks and just to use our God given athletic ability to get off of blocks and get separation to make those plays,” Karl Brooks said of the run defense. “I would just say it’s credit to the scheme and how we were taught.”

Success for any run defense starts with the interior defensive line and that unit’s ability to generate a steady push, take up space, and occupy blockers. But for a defense to consistently operate at a high level against the run as the Packers have, it truly takes all 11 defenders.

“It’s just complementary football from all three levels,” said JJ Enagbare of the run defense. “The D-tackles, D-line, linebackers able to flow to over top and then the DBs able to make the open-field tackles when it comes to them, so it was pretty much just all 11 playing together and playing with each other.”

The last time the Packers played the Bears, there was a bit of unknown that favored Chicago. This was the first game where they had made a change at offensive coordinator, moving on from Waldron and promoting Thomas Brown–who is now the interim head coach–to that role. And while in the middle of the season, there aren’t going to be any drastic changes to the playbook, how Brown calls the game in certain situations, or perhaps leaning more heavily into different concepts than what Waldron did helped create the element of surprise to a degree, as we saw with Williams’ usage in the run game.

However, that was now seven weeks ago. Who this Bears’ offense is under Brown is fairly well documented at this point through the film that’s out there over that stretch of games.

“Last time when we played them they just made the coordinator change so it was kind of going in blind a little bit and after playing them and seeing them more on tape, I think we have a little bit better feel over what we’re going to get but we need to go out and execute,” Hafley said.

The focus at this time for the Packers is on the Bears and cleaning up the mistakes from what Matt LaFleur called a “sloppy” performance against the Vikings. Regardless of what seed in the NFC playoff race the Packers get, it’s going to be a tough road ahead. Being able to re-establish the momentum they had previously built will be important heading into the postseason.

“Those are mistakes that we can’t be making going forward,” said Hafley about the defense’s performance in Minnesota. “So I gotta coach it better and then we gotta go execute it better and it’s almost like that Bears game where we gotta reset and do those little things right.

“We were just watching the film in there, but that’s the stuff that I watched in practice today that was awesome to see. We made a big deal and we emphasized it, and it’s the details like that that are more important that anything that I can call.”

From the defensive perspective for the Packers, rebuilding that momentum against the Bears starts with containing the running game and putting Williams and the offense behind the sticks and in predictable passing situations, where the Green Bay pass rush will have to find some needed success against a Chicago offensive line unit that has surrendered one of the higher quarterback pressure rates this season and the most sacks.

Without Jaire Alexander, Carrington Valentine and Eric Stokes have to guide Packers CB position through playoffs

Paul Bretl | 1/2/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers will have to navigate the remainder of the season without cornerback Jaire Alexander, who underwent knee surgery to repair a lingering PCL injury. So is the Packers are going to make a postseason run, it’ll come with them continuing to rely heavily on Eric Stokes and Carrington Valentine.

“It’s really next-man up mentality,” said Carrington Valentine on Wednesday. “We always gonna go out there and compete and just put our best foot forward.”

While a lack of ball production and high completion rates plagued the Packers’ cornerback room for much of the year, both Valentine and Stokes have been on an upward trajectory over the last several weeks.

Of the five pass deflections that Valentine has logged on the season, four have come in the Packers’ last four games. He’s also paired with those deflections two interceptions as well.

Even as productive as Valentine’s 2023 rookie season was, there wasn’t a stretch that he put together like the one he is currently on. However, Valentine still believes that there is a lot more that is still out there for him.

“I’m probably my biggest critic,” said Valentine on Wednesday. “It’s always things to clean up, so I still feel like I’m still trending upwards. I still feel like there’s more to give for sure.”

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Stokes, meanwhile, doesn’t have the ball production that Valentine does. In fact, he hasn’t recorded a single pass breakup or interception over the last two seasons. But his completion percentage these last six games is quite low, surrendering only seven completions on 15 targets over his last six games. Since Week 12, out of 74 eligible cornerbacks, Stokes’ completion rate of 46.6% is the second-lowest during that span, according to PFF.

“It’s been good,” said Stokes of his play. “Finally getting more comfortable and more comfortable as the weeks go on with the scheme, technique and little stuff and just getting more comfortable as the weeks go on.”

Even when Stokes has surrendered a reception this season, he’s been able to limit the damage, allowing just 10.0 yards per catch this season. The biggest difference for him, in what has been a tale of two seasons after allowing a completion rate of 68% through the first nine games, is the comfort he now has playing in Jeff Hafley’s defense.

“It was just a lot of little things — just getting used to the technique, getting used to some of the other little things all over, and some of the routes and some of the things that we’re getting,” said Stokes on adjusting to Hafley’s defense. “I just had to get used to it, and now I pretty much know what type of defense we run, everybody knows, so we pretty much get hit with the same things over and over, so then you start picking up on it.”

Although for much of the season, we saw a rotation between Valentine and Stokes taking place, in recent games, when the Packers are in their base 4-3 defense and have just two boundary cornerbacks on the field or when Javon Bullard has been in the slot, it’s been Valentine who has seen those starting reps opposite of Keisean Nixon.

“CV is a young player, and the more he plays, it seems like the better he’s getting,” said Matt LaFleur. “And I think he’s addressed some of the things that we wanted him to work on throughout, not only last year, but into this year, and he’s done a nice job, and certainly he’s made some plays for us, particularly in the last couple of games, and I expect him to get better.”

However, with Bullard having missed some time recently and the Packers also dealing with injuries at the safety position–neither Evan Williams nor Zayne Anderson practiced on Wednesday–more movement on the back-end has been required, which has resulted in Stokes playing a much larger role. If Bullard isn’t in the slot, then Nixon takes over that position for him, while Valentine and Stokes line up on the boundary, which is what we’ve seen a lot of over the last few weeks.

Assisting Valentine, Stokes, and the Packers’ secondary as a whole will have to be an improved and more consistent pass rush. While, yes, Sam Darnold and the Vikings’ passing game put up a lot of yards against the Packers this past Sunday, a key contributor to that was all the time he had in the pocket. With or without Alexander, having to defend that talented group of pass-catchers for three or four seconds routinely is a tall task for really any secondary.

Awaiting the Packers in the playoffs could potentially include some combination of Detroit, Minnesota, Tampa Bay, and Philadelphia–all four of whom rank top 10 in the NFL this season in points per game as well as yards per passing attempt, generating big plays against the opposing secondary. And not to be forgotten about either is Matthew Stafford and the Rams’ offense, who can put up yards with the best of them when rolling.

Since the offseason, the Packers have continually expressed the confidence that they have in the secondary and their actions–not drafting a cornerback until the seventh round and not making a trade deadline addition–back those sentiments up. Now, whether that confidence was misplaced or not, we will find out in the coming weeks.

It won’t be easy against that aforementioned group of quarterbacks and passing offenses, but the playoffs aren’t supposed to be easy. The spotlight will be on Stokes and Valentine and their level of play will be an important factor in determining what kind of success the Packers have in January.

“They stepped up a lot,” said Xavier McKinney of Stokes and Valentine. “I think everybody’s been ready to go, been prepared and prepared the right way. No matter when their name was called, during this situation, they were always ready to go.”